How will we be saved?

6th Sunday of Easter (year A)

Overweging Preek - gepubliceerd: zondag, 17 mei 2020 - 857 woorden

The gospel of the 6th Sunday of Easter is about love and the command­ments of the Lord. In the ca­the­dral church I celebrated holy Mass in English, prepared by El Shaddai community. Fr. Ruben Torres, spiritual leader of the community concelebrated.

The celebration can be seen on channel ‘Ka­the­draal TV’ (link here at the left).

TRUE LOVE...

Love and command­ments

“If you love me,you will keep my command­ments. (...)Whoever loves mewill be loved by my Father,and I will love him... “,says the Lord.

It was at the Last Supperthat Jesus said this.He spoke about loveand He expressed His loveby washing the feet of his disciplesand by giving Himself in the holy Eucha­rist.

Not without sacrifices

Today’s gospel is about love.And love is what we most desire.But love is not just words and feelings,love is not a fairy-tale kind of thingbut it is kee­ping the command­ments.You show your lovethrough your deeds.There is no lovewithout suffe­ring and sacrifices.A woman who is suppor­ting her hus­bandwho is gro­wing demented:that is love!A young man who is visi­ting each Saturdayold people who are lonely and homeless people on the streets,that is love, love and charity!A mother and father trying to be closeto their daughter in the hospital,that is love!An old farmer coming to church every day,who is just sit­ting there in silencein the presence of the Lord,that too is love!

"Tell me, Lord"

If you love the Lordand keep his command­ments,he will give you a Helper,the holy Spirit,who is called “the spirit of truth”.So, please start loving the Lord,with the desirenot to follow your own path, your own ideas,but love Him with an open mind,prepared to keep his command­ments,that is: not only the ten command­ments,but also what you feel He is asking from you.If you have an open mind and an open spirit- “tell me, Lord” -the holy Spirit will reveal you the truthand the Lord will show you how to go on, what road to take, what to dobecause you come to know Him.The more you know Him,the better you can see what He is wor­king in your life.

Love is:trying to be a good person,who practices the faith through acts of charity.

A Russian story

I like to tell you an old Russian story:

A very old lady passed away,but nobody regretted her decease,because she had alway been mean,selfish and very unpleasant.Nobody could remember him- or herselfthat she ever did good to any other person.So, she diedand she found herself in an abysstogether with many othersuffe­ring souls.Far away, in the air,she saw the gates of heavenand people ente­ring there with joy.Now she became anxious.Could she be saved?Her guardian angel camein front of the Lord’s throneand the Lord God asked him:“Did she never ever did some good?Was there really no act of love whatsoever?”The guardian angel gave it a thought,he racked his memory.Finally he said:“Yes, there was!Once she gave a flower from her gar­dento a girl pas­sing by”.“Maybe this flowercan save her”the merciful Lord said.“Pull her out of the pitwith that flower”.

Uplif­ting charity

The angel went to the abyss,gave her one side of that flowerand started to pull her upand really the angel seemed to succeed in doing so.Slowly the woman was lifted up, up, up,but other people seeing thisgrab­bed her feet,because they toowanted to leave this terrible abyss.The woman became angry:“This is my flower,you don’t have any right,go away, go away”, she criedand she started to kick,to get rid of them.But then the holy Spirit came down,the Spirit of truth, our Advocate:“Love will save you”, he said,“only love will save you, acts of love.Jesus is just love and mercy,whoever loves Himwill be loved by His Father”.The woman hesitated a little,than she came to let it all happenand together with hermany more were saved.

Show it!

This old Russian story,which I adapted a little,makes clear to ushow important our good deeds,our love and charity are.If you say: I have faith in you, O Lord,you have to show it.True love is not just a word without mea­ning,not just a nice feelingbut it is love as an act, it is the fulfilling of the command­ments of the Lord,it is living with a clear conscienceand an open mind for what the Lord may ask from you.

The saving power of charity

Our good and charitable deedswill save us,of course with the help of God’s grace,but through these acts of lovewe come to know the Lord betterand love Him more dearly; we spread goodness,inspire othersand the merits of our loving deedswill save many others as well.